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Geek Squad Founder Leaving Best Buy

A "Geek Squad" sign hangs on a door to its computer repair facility in a Best Buy store June 6, 2006 in Niles, Illinois. Best Buy is reportedly testing their "Geek Squad" computer service and technical repair in ten Office Depot stores in Orlando, Florida.

(credit: Tim Boyle/Getty Images)

EDEN PRAIRIE, Minn. (WCCO) — The founder of Geek Squad announced that he’s leaving the company, which was acquired by Best Buy a decade ago.

Robert Stephens announced his decision on his blog, saying “I’m ready to build new companies.”

Geek Squad was a startup in the 1990s, offering computing assistance to the less tech-savvy. The company built its identity around the image of a team of black-and-white-attired “geeks” in clip-on ties, driving to the rescue in black-and-white Volkswagen Beetles.

Since then, the company has expanded to its current workforce of more than 24,000 employees.

Stephens wrote that he would continue to assume a role within the Best Buy organization as an outside advisor to the company’s CEO Brian Dunn.

The announcement comes on the same day that Apple is expected to announce the latest version of its popular iPad tablet computer, and Stephens joked on Twitter: “I’ve decided that I’m going to assume the role of iPad3.”

One Comment

With the Geek Squad founder leaving Best Buy does this spell the demise of the G-Squad. Is this the end of the iconic image GEEK Squad has tried to promulgate? Another great innovative business gobbled up by a big gorilla corporation. I guess Geek Squad had its heyday.

Too bad the “geeks” hired werent put to a test to qualify. Locally, our so-called genius’ geeks are dumber than a box of rocks. Id NEVER buy another computer from BB. My machine was a piece of junk from day-1 and they wouldnt admit it had a problem,nor could they fix it. Thankfully, I had a friend smarter than them. Everytime I turned around something else had to be replaced.

I hate that you had a bad experience with the Geek Squad. Just realize that some agents, like myself, know our craft well. I work as an agent nights and weekends. My day job is as a computer programmer with 14 years of experience.

@Agent “0”
Thanks for the info. Then that explains why the Geek Squad services, over the past ten years, weren’t up to par like they were when the Squad was founded. Still corporate America strikes again making a good thing worse.

I used to use the Geek Squad with no problems. They were expert, quick, knowledgeable, and polite. When Best Buy bought the outfit, I used them twice. Both times they were rude, inefficient, and ultimately wrong about the problems.

Let’s hope Stephens starts a new firm to go head-to-head with BB. I’ll use their services without qualm.

Geek Squad used to be a great company but has gone downhill in the last year. They hired too many “agents” that didn’t have experience. Their motto was quantity over quality unfortunately. I used to be a loyal customer, but will never go back after the horrible experience I have had recently. I will also never go back to Best Buy for anything. Service sucks. It’s really too bad.

When Robert first founded the GS – they were good techs – knowledgeable and straight in their diagnosis and resolution.

Since BB took it over, they have some good techs, but a lot of them end up trying to upsell you or sell you things you don’t really need. It’s a double-edge sword to have a tech service group that wants to upsell in a big box electronics store….

Good luck Robert – you started a good company… too bad you are not leaving it at the same level you started it